Out with the old, in with the new: LineageOS cut support for Android 9 Pie earlier this year, and to make up for the loss, the open-source project has just released version 18.1 based on Android 11. It comes with official support for about 60 phones and tablets.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 is a phone that, statistically, most of you probably will not be able to buy through official channels if you read this website. While it will be available in two massive markets - namely, China and India - the rest of the world will once again be sitting on the sidelines for the launch of Xiaomi's latest and greatest low-cost but powerful mass-market smartphone. Xiaomi is expected to expand its list of markets at some point with the Mi 5, but the general assumption is that expansion will still be restricted to Asia or other emerging markets for the time being.
We had a chance to quickly go hands-on with the Xiaomi Mi 5 at MWC directly after its announcement this morning, and I know what your first question is: will I even be able to buy one? Answer: probably not. Xiaomi said China and India would be launch markets with "some other countries" following down the road, but if the company planned to make a big to do of opening up new markets for their hardware, I have a feeling they'd have made a lot more noise at this launch.
With that said, should you want one, even knowing you probably won't be able to through anything but 3rd-party retailers (and likely with non-functional 4G)?
Despite not much of a western presence, Xiaomi is rapidly becoming one of the largest phone manufacturers in the world. At Mobile World Congress, the company has unveiled its new flagship product: the Xiaomi Mi 5.